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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22358692">Pieces</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/herwhiteknight/pseuds/herwhiteknight'>herwhiteknight</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>RWBY</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>(brief mention), Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon-Typical Violence, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Soulmates, bbzine, bumbleby zine fic</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 09:33:48</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,822</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22358692</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/herwhiteknight/pseuds/herwhiteknight</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>“You’re not dying,” she said resolutely, like it was written in the stars. Maybe it was. Maybe it would be. “I promise you. As long as I’m alive, nothing will keep us apart. Not even death.”</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Blake Belladonna/Yang Xiao Long</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>540</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Pieces</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>To say that I am excited to finally be posting this fic would be a massive understatement. I have been sitting on this piece for the Bumbleby Zine for ages and now I finally get to share it with y'all!</p><p>Don't forget to head on over to the bumbleby-zine tumblr and shoot them a massive thank you and congratulations for pulling this amazing project together! It was truly an absolute honor to work on a project with such a skilled and passionate team of people and other creatives! </p><p>Without further ado, please enjoy! All comments and feedback are greatly appreciated my friends :3</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Do you remember when you died?” Blake asked, running her hands through Yang’s golden hair, glowing faint trails underneath her fingers. She paused with her hands cupping Yang’s jaw as she rested her head in Blake’s lap.</p><p>Yang blinked up at her slowly, like a cat shifting in a patch of sunlight. She was silent for a few moments, processing and watching the way Blake’s eyes searched hers. “You already know the answer to that,” she murmured, not angry, not disappointed. Just a soft statement with the barest hint of remorse.</p><p>“I want-” Blake started, emotions catching. She wished these thoughts weren’t hounding her tonight - things had been <em> so good </em> lately. But she couldn’t help thinking, knowing that things were changing. “I <em> need </em>to hear you say it.”</p><p>“Of course I remember that night,” Yang replied without hesitation, lifting a hand that was too warm to dry the stains on Blake’s cheeks that had sprung from the question. “I’ll always remember it.” </p><p>Blake <em> hated </em> the truth behind that word. <em> Always.  </em></p><p>“I…,” Blake breathed, feeling the words halt. She didn’t want to say the things swirling around in her head, but when she looked in the mirror and <em> saw</em>, sometimes there was nothing else she could do but think them. “I almost wish I could take it all back. I was so <em> selfish </em> and I.. I just couldn’t imagine anything else in a world without you in it. There was just… <em> nothing</em>. You were in my arms and I.. it was all nothing. And I was <em> selfish</em>.”</p><p>Yang pulled herself up, scooting back on their bed until she was resting against the headboard, knees steepled over Blake’s lap. “There was nothing selfish about that choice Blake,” Yang whispered, gently cupping her hand over Blake’s cheek, thumb brushing over ruddy skin and wrapping an arm around her shoulders, pulling her into her chest. “You made it for me. You made it for both of us. I’m here <em> because </em> of you. That wasn’t selfish. You saved me,” she traced her fingers along her jaw, secure around her chin, tilting her face up to meet her eyes. Her beautiful, bright green eyes that glinted like sunlight filtered through a forest canopy. “You gave a part of yourself up to <em> save me</em>, Blake.”</p><p>“As if I could’ve chosen different,” she said, tears closing in on her throat finally, cutting off what was left of her apologies. Her hand drifted almost absently to Yang's right arm, where a glowing ring of soft purple pulsed under her skin. She knew that there were dozens more marks like this littered across Yang's body - just further proof of her sacrifice.</p><p>“Your choice brought me back,” Yang reassured her, cradling the back of her head and turning Blake’s face to hide in her chest. “It’s what brought <em> us </em>back together.”</p><p>Barely, <em> barely</em>, “For how long?”</p><p>With Blake’s face hidden, Yang allowed her expression to shift into something bittersweet, knowledge of the truth of her next word too tangible to ignore. “Forever.”</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <em> “Is this your choice?” </em>
</p><p><em> “Please, </em> please <em> - just bring her back! Bring her back to me, she wasn’t supposed to die, not like this…. Not so soon…” </em></p><p>
  <em> “There will be a cost, making a deal with the gods-” </em>
</p><p><em> “Anything, I’ll pay it, please - I </em> can’t <em> lose her.” </em></p><p>
  <em> A long pause. Depthless golden pools danced above a featureless face, curiosity evident somehow still. “Humans are so easily manipulated,” the god mused, floating low and crouching down to inspect the bloody mass that was Yang’s body, mangled and dismembered by the Grimm she’d leapt in front of to save Blake from. “You’ve never questioned why you never knew your parents… as designed, of course. They brought you to me when you were born without breath, and begged me to save you. I was curious by their passion, but their price was steep.” </em>
</p><p><em> “Just </em> save her, <em> damn you!”  </em></p><p>
  <em> Another long pause. Blake was no longer looking at him, her gaze pulled back to Yang’s ashen face, jaw gaping open as if still in surprise from taking the hit. From above, “Very well.”  </em>
</p><p>
  <em> Energy like a lightning bolt ripped through her body, nearly pulling something integral from her heart. Purple streamed out from her chest, poured past Yang’s lips. Her hair glowed like a fire, her eyes flew open, shifting blue to violet. And she breathed in life again, Blake’s soul mingling with hers. </em>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>“I dreamed of it again. That night,” Blake said, voice rough in such a way that only came from being woken up in pitch blackness. Her heart was racing still, but Yang’s concerned face and warmth pressed up close to her side slowed the war. She took a deep, steadying breath, exhaling long as Yang brushed stray hairs away from her face with a gentle touch. “I’ve never been able to tell you… somehow, if I explained it, told you everything… I didn’t want to make it more real. But…”</p><p>“Go on,” Yang encouraged, pressing a gentle kiss to her forehead, keeping her lips there for a moment of stillness. “Whatever it is, you can-”</p><p>“Yang, <em> I’m dying</em>,” she blurted, feeling a double-edged sword pierce through her back, felt the pain it inflicted on Yang at her recoil. The warmth disappeared, and bitterness filled the space. “I’ve been dying ever since that night,” she finished harshly, as if speaking the truth in such a manner would drive Yang away, would allow her to live out the punishment in the way that she always deserved. Alone.</p><p>But Yang, ever unpredictable in her fierce and unrelenting love, just smiled gently. Inexplicably. Infuriatingly. “Oh Blake,” she said, her tone just as gentle. She wrapped an arm around Blake’s shoulders, free hand curling into Blake’s. “I know.”</p><p>Thoughts rushed, startled and terrified, fighting to be the first past lips and posed into open air. “You <em> know </em>?” escaped first, disbelief colouring her lips as blue as Yang’s eyes used to be.</p><p>“You’re a part of me,” Yang said, tapping a finger against Blake’s chest. “A part you gave. I can feel you like a second heartbeat. Faint, but there.”</p><p>“So why are you smiling?!”</p><p>“Because I’m here,” she said, sounding so logical in a way that begged to be believed. “And you’re here. Which means I’m not going anywhere without you, so that must also mean that <em> you’re </em>not going anywhere without me. Got it?”</p><p>“I’m not sure I-”</p><p>“You’re not dying, Blake Belladonna,” Yang said resolutely, like it was written in the stars. Maybe it was. Maybe it would be. “I promise you. As long as I’m alive, nothing will keep us apart. Not even death.”</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>Three weeks later, Yang’s promise was to be tested. She woke up before Blake, and instantly knew something was wrong. There was a shift in her chest, a lightness that was so very <em> dark </em>somehow. It clicked all at once after a moment of awareness - Blake’s heartbeat had fallen out of rhythm with Yang’s.</p><p>It was the start of her fear.</p><p>“Blake?” Yang leaned over Blake’s side, brushing her hair away from her face and studying the features revealed in an attempt to catch anything out of the ordinary. A paler face, hollowed out cheeks, anything. But there were no visual signs to confirm what she could now feel so strongly in her heart. And she should’ve been glad for it. Except it only made her fear worse. How would she know for sure just how close the inevitable hung over them?</p><p>“Yang? I… what’s wrong?” Blake spoke, a spear of clarity sharpened with worry piercing her exhaustion.</p><p><em> Nothing. It’s nothing, just go back to sleep. Make it easier to pretend that we still have eternity ahead of us. </em>The words stuck in her throat, chasing happiness in her brain and leaving nothing else but the truth to occupy her tongue. “It’s getting closer,” she whispered as Blake shifted in bed, sitting up slowly. Yang followed, folding in on herself and dropping her chin to her steepled knees. “Something’s different.”</p><p>Blake’s breath caught as realization caught up to her. “Different? What do…,” she started slowly before her question trailed off as she leaned forward, gaze narrowing in on Yang’s face. “Yang… your eyes, they… they’re changing.”</p><p>“Changing? How?” Yang asked, already getting out of bed without waiting for an answer, heading for the nearest mirror on their dresser. She leaned in closer, her grip whitening against the wooden edges as she took in her own vision. And watched her irises flicker rapidly between blue and violet, the blue clinging and saturating more intensely with each change until-</p><p>Yang’s heart felt like it stopped. Except she knew in an instant that it wasn’t hers. And in that exact moment of that realization, the violet in her eyes seeped out like blood, poured down her cheeks in mourning. And vanished like smoke.</p><p>Blake’s soul was gone. And her price was about to be paid.</p><p>“Yang…,” Blake murmured faintly, and Yang turned, immediately dropping to her knees at the side of the bed where Blake was laying, clearly broken despite no physical signs of trauma. </p><p>“Hey, hey.. Shh,” Yang reassured gently, clasping Blake’s hand in both of hers, tried her damndest to ignore how cold her skin felt, tried to keep herself from wondering if her own skin had felt the same when Blake first promised her soul to keep Yang with her. “I’m right here. I’m not leaving. And neither are you. I promised you that, remember? I promised you.”</p><p>“It’s too late for all of that,” Blake murmured, a sad smile barely touching the corners of her lips. “We both knew it would come to this, Yang. My selfishness gave us time, but…”</p><p>“No,” Yang shook her head violently, her grip tightening around Blake’s hand. “No, Blake. I refuse to accept that. That’s not how we end. I’m not gonna let you go. Ever.”</p><p>Blake’s body started to tremble, her hands within Yang’s shaking. “Too late…,” she carved out, words thick. Purple appeared on her lips as she exhaled, sparks in a forest. Small, insignificant, then raging and devouring all at once. A pulse of searing white light flashed around them, and Blake cried out, writhing in pain as a deep black scorch mark appeared just over her heart.</p><p>“Blake!” Yang scrabbled up onto the bed, falling on top of her, twisted and anxious, limbs useless as she watched Blake’s eyes slip shut while thick purple smoke poured from her chest. “Blake, baby?” she shook. “Just open your eyes, Blake… please. Stay with me, I.. I can’t…” Terror hollowed out her bones as her hands flew desperately to cover the wound, believing stupidly that there was <em> something </em>to be done, that there was some way for her to stop this. She pressed down harder, as if her own physical strength would be enough to thwart the destiny that the gods had demanded.</p><p>The smoke, <em> the manifestation of Blake’s soul</em>, continued to spill from the wound. An artery that couldn’t be sutured.</p><p>“I promised you..,” Yang sobbed, her chest heaving, her shoulders shuddering. She kept her eyes pinned to her useless hands, unable to stand even the thought of seeing Blake’s face so motionless. "I told you forever, didn't I? I told you…,” her words cut off, choked somewhere deep in her throat as tears fell over her clenched fists, where the last faint wisps of purple eked out past her fingers. </p><p>“Please don’t go… please, Blake, don’t leave me…,” she begged, her eyes squeezing shut, giving into darkness. She collapsed, falling apart, hands pinned between her heart and Blake’s as the last connection that was left. </p><p>
  <em> “I can’t lose you.” </em>
</p><p>As those words dropped from her breath, an electric current overtook her right arm, flaying skin from bone, nerves from muscle. Yang gasped, her eyes flying open and taking in the sight of her arm disintegrating into tiny motes that flickered a faint purple. Under her shirt, her scars started to glow too, pulling from her body and amassing together into a swirling vortex just above Blake’s body. Yang watched, eyes wide in awe as the last of her cells joined the pool above the blackened wound. Then-</p><p>Another searing flash of light. And everything disappeared.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>The next thing Yang knew, she was floating. Drifting downwards amidst a blank canvas of mist, neither warm nor cool. And everything was white. Until a figure shrouded in violet materialized in front of her, arms crossed at their chest, hands positioned as if they were clasped tightly to something invisible.</p><p>
  <em> Blake.  </em>
</p><p>Yang tried to reach out, to call her name and get her to open her eyes, but she had no control over her own body, no voice with which to speak. She could only watch as they continued falling together, twisting around each other in slow circles as they sank further into nothingness.</p><p>Until nothingness suddenly solidified underneath them, and they landed, Yang’s knees giving out as she felt heaviness return to her being, given a corporeal form in just enough time to catch Blake’s body as it collapsed from the sky.</p><p>And as Yang cradled her solid frame in her arms, she received a sudden vision, a flash of knowledge that gave her awareness of her surroundings. This was the hill where she died.</p><p>"An anomaly," a voice distorted the sky, parting the mist. "Strange."</p><p>Yang's gaze snapped around to lock onto the source of the words and came face to face with the god of light. A vague memory shot through her as she watched it approach and kneel before her. She frowned, struggled to latch on to the niggling sensation that she'd been through all of this before. </p><p>Except that she hadn't. Blake had.</p><p>"Why have you brought me here?" Yang asked, unsteady in voice but defiant in gaze as she addressed divinity. "It wasn't enough to take her right from my arms, you had to pull me along like some sick puppet to continue the torture in this.. this afterlife?!"</p><p>“I did not bring you here. Her soul was meant to make this journey alone,” the god said, kneeling before the pair once more in a scene so familiar that Yang saw herself as a memory, held close in Blake’s arms, bloody and battered.</p><p>“How do I bring her back?” Yang asked desperately. “She gave herself for me - there must be a way-!”</p><p>“Your mortal bodies were forfeit the moment your souls entered this dimension. There is no way to return to that state if that is your demand,” it said.</p><p>Yang shook her head, lifting her hand to brush hair away from Blake’s motionless face. “I just want to be with her. Anywhere.”</p><p>There was a deliberate silence as consideration hung in the air. “You would both give up your physical bodies just to remain connected together?”</p><p>“Yes. Anything. I would give up <em> anything </em>for her,” Yang whispered, the strength of her words not diminished by their quiet. “And she’d say the same. She already gave her life for mine.”</p><p>“Then you will remain here as two souls for the rest of eternity,” the god spoke, reaching out its hand and touching Yang’s chest, pulling away a strand of gold from her soul. It hovered in a lazy spiralling sphere above the god’s palm for a mere moment before flowing as a river and crashing into a waterfall, spilling over the charred wound above Blake’s heart. </p><p>As gold sank into Blake’s chest, the wound vanished completely and new skin knit itself together, a softly pulsing glow of gold left in its place. And Blake gasped, taking in Yang’s soul through parted lips. Her eyes snapped open, revealing amber.</p><p>“Yang..?” Blake asked, her gaze darting around in a moment of confusion before locking onto Yang’s face.</p><p>“Hey,” Yang choked out, blinking back tears of relief. “There you are.”</p><p>Blake pulled herself up slowly, leaning back into Yang’s side as her hand absently drifted to her chest, a puzzled scrunch overtaking her face. And Yang felt an overwhelming love for her. For everything about her. “What happened?” she mumbled, glancing down. “I feel… warm. Happy. I..,” Blake blinked, looking over and finding Yang grinning stupidly at her. “I feel <em> you</em>.”</p><p>“I had a promise to keep,” Yang explained simply, staring into Blake’s eyes and finding a reflection of her own soul looking back. “That nothing would keep us apart. Not even death.”</p><p>Blake hummed, feeling Yang’s soul beat in tandem with the rhythm of her own as she nestled herself into the security of Yang’s arms. “Now we’re together. Always,” she murmured, no longer fearing the absolution of the word, but reveling in it instead.</p><p>Yang dropped a kiss to the crown of Blake’s head, barely noticing the world forming itself around them, splitting itself into colours and building landscapes out of shapes. “Yeah,” she breathed as grass bloomed underneath them, purple and yellow flowers sprouting at their feet. “Forever.”</p>
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